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Text File | 1990-05-10 | 8.7 KB | 257 lines

SITris - A game of the mind. ---------------------------- Release version 1.0, written 5/14/90 by Paul Tupaczewski Written at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Donations? Reach me at: Bitnet: U93_PTUPACZE@STEVENS InterNet: U93_PTUPACZE@VAXC.STEVENS-TECH.EDU USnail: Stevens Tech, Box S-1400, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5991 Introduction ------------ This game was written by myself on a whim, out of total boredom. About three days later, this game emerged. Currently the game is fairly well debugged, but if any new bugs are found, I would appreciate if you tell me. The game is a combination of reflexes and mind power, and will hold your attention for hours to come. How to Load ----------- After you copy the game to a subdirectory on either a floppy or hard drive, type SITRIS to run. The main menu will load up. The Game -------- The game of SITris entails various shapes. These shapes fall from the top of the screen until they hit something else, whether it be another piece or the bottom of the screen. The main idea of the game is to maneuver these pieces left and right, and position them so that complete rows, or "lines" of blocks are created. When a line is fully filled, it is removed, and all blocks above it drop down one level. The more lines removed with one move, the more points you get. If you successfully remove four lines, you achieve "HALcyon", and net big points. To aid in the positioning of the blocks, the piece may be rotated 90 degrees at a time. The game is over when the blocks reach the top of the screen. The Game Screen --------------- When you begin playing the game of SITris by pressing <ENTER> at the main menu, the game screen appears. At the right is a Statistics window telling you how many of each individual shapes you've used so far. If so chosen, a window on the left will display the next piece that will appear for planning its placement. Also on the left are your score, lines created, and the level. The level of the game increases every time you clear ten lines, and the speed of the falling shapes increases with the level. To move the piece left and right, the default keys are the left and right arrow keys. The down arrow (default) drops the piece straight down until it stops - beware, position the piece correctly before you drop it, because once it's dropping, there is no changing its trajectory. The up arrow (default) accelerates the piece downward. And finally, the <ENTER> key (default) rotates the piece 90 degrees at a time. These are the basic rules of playing SITris. The Main Menu ------------- At the main menu, pressing <ENTER> begins the game. Pressing <CTRL-Q> quits and goes back to DOS. Pressing <F1> will show you the high score chart. Pressing <F10> will allow you to redefine the default keys to your own liking, and once redefined, they are saved with the game so that every time you load the game in, the new key assignments are loaded as well. You may select various options by using the up and down arrow keys to move the pointer, and pressing <SPACE> to cycle through the choices for each option. The first option, Show Next, gives you the option of showing the next piece. Turning this option off makes the game considerably more challenging. The second option, SITris Mode, lets you vary the game itself. Regular is the standard mode of play, while Small shrinks the blocks down to one-fourth the size of Regular. Large increases the blocks to four times as large as Regular. Wide and Skinny are two modes for those who enjoy some variety in their games. The third option, Starting Level, lets you select the level to start the game at. The higher the level, the harder the game is - nine is extremely fast. The fourth option, Starting Height, lets the computer build up a tower of blocks as high as you request - 1/3 fills the lower one-third of the screen with various blocks, and so forth. This lets you practice making lines and lowering the entire stack. The fifth option, Block Set, lets you select which library of shapes will be used. Regular is the standard SITris set of seven shapes, while Extended adds three new shapes the the Regular set. Insane! is a completely separate set of five entirely new shapes, and All is an amalgamation of Regular, Extended, and Insane! The sixth option, Effects Speed, lets you choose which type of special effects you like: the Regular (default) effects involve a simple "line removal" effect; the Quick effect is a no-frills, quick line removal; the Slow effect is fairly interesting, but only if you're in no hurry to play the game in a quick fashion. The last two options, SITris Amoeba and Appearing Blocks will be covered below. Three "comfort keys" are available for use during the game. Pressing <CTRL-S> during the game will toggle the sound on and off. Pressing <ESC> will quit the game and return you to the main menu. And the <PAUSE> key will pause the game; any other key will unpause it. SITris Amoeba ------------- The SITris Amoeba is an invisible creature that ravages your board. It takes stronghold in a block, slowly disintegrating it, and eventually making the block crumble and disappear. It can be added to the game to make gameplay more challenging. The Amoeba is invisible, but its effects are more visible: once it takes hold of a block, you will see the block begin to crumble. If not stopped, the block will disappear in a few seconds. The only way to kill an amoeba is to complete/remove the line that it inhabits. There are five options under SITris Amoeba: * Off, which removes the amoeba from gameplay * Easy, in which the amoeba randomly affects one block during gameplay. * Hard, in which the amoeba randomly affects one block, but more often than in Easy. * Spread, in which the amoeba randomly affects one block, then after destroying it, moves on to an adjacent block to destroy it, and repeats the process. * SprWide is the same as Spread, but the amoeba can move to diagonally adjacent blocks as well. Appearing Blocks ---------------- SITris also allows random blocks to appear on the screen. These can work either toward or against you. Blocks may help in completing lines, but they may also bungle a possible positioning of a block. The options under Appearing Blocks are: * Off: No blocks appear * Some: A few blocks appear every once in a while * Many: Blocks appear more often than in Some. What's Next? ------------ This is release version 1.0 of SITris. The next version is currently in the works, with more streamlined features and improved gameplay options.